Happy Mondo Missy Monday!
I hope all of you had an awesome weekend. Today is our last Monsters of March post. This "monster's" origins stem from Jewish folklore. I'd heard of Golems before, but had never given them much thought until I saw this one on Supernatural:
Though this guy, (and the storyline that went along with him) is interesting enough on his own, today we're going to be discussing Golems in general as they relate to Jewish mythos and legend. Today's Golem article is courtesy of My Jewish Learning, "Golem: Making men of clay: Can imitating God extend to the creative realm"?
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/golem/
A golem is a clay creature that has been magically brought to life. The name comes from the Hebrew word “golem,” which means something incomplete or unfinished, like an embryo.
The Talmud relates a tale of rabbis who grew hungry while on a journey–so they created a calf out of earth and ate it for dinner. The kabbalists (Jewish mystics) determined that the rabbis did this magical act by means of permuting language, primarily utilizing the formulas set forth in the Sefer Yetzirah, or Book of Creation. Just as God speaks and creates, in the Genesis story, so too can the mystic. (The word Abracadabra, incidentally, derives from avra k’davra, Aramaic for “I create as I speak.”) Thus, under the rarest of circumstances, a human being may imbue lifeless matter with that intangible, but essential spark of life: the soul.
The classic narrative of the golem tells of how Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague (known as the Maharal; 1525-1609) creates a golem to defend the Jewish community from anti-Semitic attacks. But eventually, the golem grows fearsome and violent, and Rabbi Loew is forced to destroy it. (Legend tells that the golem remains in the attic of the Altneushul in Prague, ready to be reactivated if needed; this legend reappeared in Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay). Likewise in Paul Wegener’s expressionist film The Golem (1920), the golem is a brutish creature whose powers are all-too-easily turned to destructive ends.
Read more about the Golem here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem
So, what do you think? Were golems ever real? If so, could one be created now? Or is this all purely a myth? I'm leaning more toward myth. But who knows? While we ponder the issue, let's check out the Supernatural golem one more time, and maybe check out his episode, "Everyone Hates Hitler." It's season 8, episode 13.
I hope all of you had an awesome weekend. Today is our last Monsters of March post. This "monster's" origins stem from Jewish folklore. I'd heard of Golems before, but had never given them much thought until I saw this one on Supernatural:
Though this guy, (and the storyline that went along with him) is interesting enough on his own, today we're going to be discussing Golems in general as they relate to Jewish mythos and legend. Today's Golem article is courtesy of My Jewish Learning, "Golem: Making men of clay: Can imitating God extend to the creative realm"?
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/golem/
A golem is a clay creature that has been magically brought to life. The name comes from the Hebrew word “golem,” which means something incomplete or unfinished, like an embryo.
The Talmud relates a tale of rabbis who grew hungry while on a journey–so they created a calf out of earth and ate it for dinner. The kabbalists (Jewish mystics) determined that the rabbis did this magical act by means of permuting language, primarily utilizing the formulas set forth in the Sefer Yetzirah, or Book of Creation. Just as God speaks and creates, in the Genesis story, so too can the mystic. (The word Abracadabra, incidentally, derives from avra k’davra, Aramaic for “I create as I speak.”) Thus, under the rarest of circumstances, a human being may imbue lifeless matter with that intangible, but essential spark of life: the soul.
The classic narrative of the golem tells of how Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague (known as the Maharal; 1525-1609) creates a golem to defend the Jewish community from anti-Semitic attacks. But eventually, the golem grows fearsome and violent, and Rabbi Loew is forced to destroy it. (Legend tells that the golem remains in the attic of the Altneushul in Prague, ready to be reactivated if needed; this legend reappeared in Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay). Likewise in Paul Wegener’s expressionist film The Golem (1920), the golem is a brutish creature whose powers are all-too-easily turned to destructive ends.
Read more about the Golem here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem
So, what do you think? Were golems ever real? If so, could one be created now? Or is this all purely a myth? I'm leaning more toward myth. But who knows? While we ponder the issue, let's check out the Supernatural golem one more time, and maybe check out his episode, "Everyone Hates Hitler." It's season 8, episode 13.
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| Are Hollywood golems more real than the ones from Jewish legend? |
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